Niche

April 28, 1986|By Jack Snyder of The Sentinel Staff

Ronald A. Pizzuti, president of Pizzuti Inc., a Columbus, Ohio, real estate development company, says there's no question the overall Orlando area office-space market is fairly soft right now. But Pizzuti has just launched a $40 million, 250,000-square-foot office park off Sand Lake Road in southwest Orange County. Pizzuti denied any contradiction there. He has found, he said, a niche in the market. ''The area we are going into isn't really soft,'' he said. ''We think there's a need there.'' In addition to capitalizing on the proximity of executive housing in nearby Bay Hill and other luxury communities, Pizzuti is counting on drawing new business-space users to the area from the north. Orlando is much like Atlanta of several years ago when business began flocking to that Georgia city, Pizzuti said. The developer said an acquisitions person will be based in Orlando to seek other development opportunities. Areas under consideration include Melbourne and Tampa-St. Petersburg. The Orlando project, called Sand Lake IV, will comprise four buildings. The first, currently under construction, will include parking levels. Pizzuti said Orlando will see more building-parking garage combinations in the suburbs as land prices continue to escalate. Developers no longer are going to be able to provide acres of exterior parking for their buildings, he said. Catalyst Inc., Orlando, was the architect on Sand Lake IV. Financing is through Florida National Bank in conjunction with BancOhio National Bank.